The Ottoman Turks were a Central
Asian people who had served as slaves and warriors under the Abbasids. Because
of their courage and discipline they became the masters of the palace in
Baghdad during the caliphate of Al Mutasim (833-42). The Ottoman sultan, Salim
I (1516-20), after defeating the Persians, conquered the Mamluks.

His troops, invading Syria, destroyed
Mamluk resistance in 1516 at Marj Dabaq, north of Aleppo. During the conflict
between the Mamluks and the Ottomans, the amirs of Lebanon linked their fate to
that of Ghazali, governor (pasha) of Damascus. He won the confidence of the
Ottomans by fighting on their side at Marj Dabaq and, apparently pleased with
the behavior of the Lebanese amirs, introduced them to Salim I when he entered
Damascus. Salim I, moved by the eloquence of the Lebanese ruler Amir Fakhr ad
Din I (1516-44), decided to grant the Lebanese amirs a semiautonomous status.
The Ottomans, through two great Druze feudal families, the Maans and the
Shihabs, ruled Lebanon until the middle of the nineteenth century. It was
during Ottoman rule that the term Greater Syria was coined to designate the
approximate area included in present-day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and
Israel.

The Maan family, under orders from the
governor of Damascus, came to Lebanon in 1120 to defend it against the invading
Crusaders. They settled on the southwestern slopes of the Lebanon Mountains and
soon adopted the Druze religion. Their authority began to rise with Fakhr ad
Din I, who was permitted by Ottoman authorities to organize his own army, and
reached its peak with Fakhr ad Din II (1570-1635).

Although Fakhr ad Din II's aspirations
toward complete independence for Lebanon ended tragically, he greatly enhanced
Lebanon's military and economic development. Noted for religious tolerance and
suspected of being a Christian, Fakhr ad Din attempted to merge the country's
different religious groups into one Lebanese community. In an effort to attain
complete independence for Lebanon, he concluded a secret agreement with
Ferdinand I, duke of Tuscany in Italy, the two parties pledging to support each
other against the Ottomans. Informed of this agreement, the Ottoman ruler in
Constantinople reacted violently and ordered Ahmad al Hafiz, governor of
Damascus, to attack Fakhr ad Din. Realizing his inability to cope with the
regular army of Al Hafiz, the Lebanese ruler went to Tuscany in exile in 1613.
He returned to Lebanon in 1618, after his good friend Muhammad Pasha became
governor of Damascus.

Following his return from Tuscany, Fakhr
ad Din, realizing the need for a strong and disciplined armed force, channeled
his financial resources into building a regular army. This army proved itself
in 1623, when Mustafa Pasha, the new governor of Damascus, underestimating the
capabilities of the Lebanese army, engaged it in battle and was decisively
defeated at Anjar in the Biqa Valley. Impressed by the victory of the Lebanese
ruler, the sultan of Constantinople gave him the title of Sultan al Barr
(Sultan of the Mountain).

In addition to building up the army, Fakhr
ad Din, who became acquainted with Italian culture during his stay in Tuscany,
initiated measures to modernize the country. After forming close ties with the
dukes of Tuscany and Florence and establishing diplomatic relations with them,
he brought in architects, irrigation engineers, and agricultural experts from
Italy in an effort to promote prosperity in the country. He also strengthened
Lebanon's strategic position by expanding its territory, building forts as far
away as Palmyra in Syria, and gaining control of Palestine. Finally, the
Ottoman sultan Murad IV of Constantinople, wanting to thwart Lebanon's progress
toward complete independence, ordered Kutshuk, then governor of Damascus, to
attack the Lebanese ruler. This time Fakhr ad Din was defeated, and he was
executed in Constantinople in 1635. No significant Maan rulers. succeeded Fakhr
ad Din II.

The Shihabs succeeded the Maans in 1697.
They originally lived in the Hawran region of southwestern Syria and settled in
Wadi at Taim in southern Lebanon. The most prominent among them was Bashir II,
who was much like his predecessor, Fakhr ad Din II. His ability as a statesman
was first tested in 1799, when Napoleon besieged Acre, a well-fortified coastal
city in Palestine, about forty kilometers south of Tyre. Both Napoleon and Al
Jazzar, the governor of Acre, requested assistance from the Shihab leader;
Bashir, however, remained neutral, declining to assist either combatant. Unable
to conquer Acre, Napoleon returned to Egypt, and the death of Al Jazzar in 1804
removed Bashir's principal opponent in the area.

When Bashir II decided to break away from
the Ottoman Empire, he allied himself with Muhammad Ali, the founder of modern
Egypt, and assisted Muhammad Ali's son, Ibrahim Pasha, in another siege of
Acre. This siege lasted seven months, the city falling on May 27, 1832. The
Egyptian army, with assistance from Bashir's troops, also attacked and
conquered Damascus on June 14, 1832.

Ibrahim Pasha and Bashir II at first ruled
harshly and exacted high taxes. These practices led to several revolts and
eventually ended their power. In May 1840, despite the efforts of Bashir, the
Maronites and Druzes united their forces against the Egyptians. In addition,
the principal European powers (Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia), opposing
the pro-Egyptian policy of the French, signed the London Treaty with the
Sublime Porte (the Ottoman ruler) on July 15, 1840. According to the terms of
this treaty, Muhammad Ali was asked to leave Syria; when he rejected this
request, Ottoman and British troops landed on the Lebanese coast on September
10, 1840. Faced with this combined force, Muhammad Ali retreated, and on
October 14, 1840, Bashir II surrendered to the British and went into exile.

On September 3, 1840, Bashir III was
appointed amir of Mount Lebanon by the Ottoman sultan. Geographically, Mount
Lebanon represents the central part of present-day Lebanon, which historically
has had a Christian majority. Greater Lebanon, on the other hand, created at
the expense of Greater Syria, was formally constituted under the League of
Nations mandate granted to France in 1920 and includes the Biqa Valley, Beirut,
southern Lebanon (up to the border with Palestine/Israel), and northern Lebanon
(up to the border with Syria). In practice, the terms Lebanon and Mount Lebanon
tend to be used interchangeably by historians until the formal establishment of
the Mandate.

Bitter conflicts between Christians and
Druzes, which had been simmering under Ibrahim Pasha's rule, resurfaced under
the new amir. Hence, the sultan deposed Bashir III on January 13, 1842, and
appointed Umar Pasha as governor of Mount Lebanon. This appointment, however,
created more problems than it solved. Representatives of the European powers
proposed to the sultan that Lebanon be partitioned into Christian and Druze
sections. On December 7, 1842, the sultan adopted the proposal and asked Assad
Pasha, the governor (wali) of Beirut, to divide the region, then known as Mount
Lebanon, into two districts: a northern district under a Christian deputy
governor and a southern district under a Druze deputy governor. this
arrangement came to be known as the Double Qaimaqamate. Both officials were to
be responsible to the governor of Sidon, who resided in Beirut. The
Beirut-Damascus highway was the dividing line between the two districts.

This partition of Lebanon proved to be a
mistake. Animosities between the religious sects increased, nurtured by outside
powers. The French, for example, supported the Christians, while the British
supported the Druzes, and the Ottomans fomented strife to increase their
control. Not surprisingly, these tensions led to conflict between Christians
and Druzes as early as May 1845. Consequently, the European powers requested
that the Ottoman sultan establish order in Lebanon, and he attempted to do so
by establishing a majlis (council) in each of the districts. Each majlis was
composed of members who represented the different religious communities and was
intended to assist the deputy governor.

This system failed to keep order when the
peasants of Kasrawan, overburdened by heavy taxes, rebelled against the feudal
practices that prevailed in Mount Lebanon. In 1858 Tanyus Shahin, a Maronite
peasant leader, demanded that the feudal class abolish its privileges. When
this demand was refused, the poor peasants revolted against the shaykhs of
Mount Lebanon, pillaging the shaykhs' land and burning their homes.

Foreign interests in Lebanon transformed
these basically sociopolitical struggles into bitter religious conflicts,
culminating in the 1860 massacre of about 10,000 Maronites, as well as Greek
Catholics and Greek Orthodox, by the Druzes. These events offered France the
opportunity to intervene; in an attempt to forestall French intervention, the
Ottoman government stepped in to restore order.

On October 5, 1860, an international
commission composed of France, Britain, Austria, Prussia, and the Ottoman
Empire met to investigate the causes of the events of 1860 and to recommend a
new administrative and judicial system for Lebanon that would prevent the
recurrence of such events. The commission members agreed that the partition of
Mount Lebanon in 1842 between Druzes and Christians had been responsible for
the massacre. Hence, in the Statue of 1861 Mount Lebanon was separated from
Syria and reunited under a non-Lebanese Christian mutasarrif (governor)
appointed by the Ottoman sultan, with the approval of the European powers. The
mutasarrif was to be assisted by an administrative council of twelve members
from the various religious communities in Lebanon.

Direct Ottoman rule of Lebanon remained in
effect until the end of World War I. This period was generally characterized by
a laissez-faire policy and corruption. However, a number of governors, such as
Daud Pasha and Naum Pasha, ruled the country efficiently and
conscientiously.

Restricted mainly to the mountains by the
mutasarrifiyah (district governed by a mutasarrif) arrangement and unable make
a living, many Lebanese Christians emigrated to Egypt and other parts of Africa
and to North America, South America, and East Asia. Remittances from these
Lebanese emigrants send to their relatives in Lebanon has continued to
supplement the Lebanese economy to this day.

In addition to being a center of
commercial and religious activity, Lebanon became an intellectual center in the
second half of the nineteenth century. Foreign missionaries established schools
throughout the country, with Beirut as the center of this renaissance. The
American University of Beirut was founded in 1866, followed by the French St.
Joseph's University in 1875. An intellectual guild that was formed at the same
time gave new life to Arabic literature, which had stagnated under the Ottoman
Empire. This new intellectual era was also marked by the appearance of numerous
publications and by a highly prolific press.

The period was also marked by increased
political activity. The harsh rule of Abdul Hamid II (1876-1909) prompted the
Arab nationalists, both Christians and Muslims, in Beirut and Damascus to
organize into clandestine political groups and parties. The Lebanese, however,
had difficulties in deciding the best political course to advocate. Many
Lebanese Christians were apprehensive of Turkish pan-Islamic policies, fearing
a repetition of the 1860 massacres. Some, especially the Maronites, began to
contemplate secession rather than the reform of the Ottoman Empire. Others,
particularly the Greek Orthodox, advocated an independent Syria with Lebanon as
a separate province within it, so as to avoid Maronite rule. A number of
Lebanese Muslims, on the other hand, sought not to liberalize the Ottoman
regime but to maintain it, as Sunni Muslims particularly liked to be identified
with the caliphate. The Shias and Druzes, however, fearing minority status in a
Turkish state, tended to favor an independent Lebanon or a continuation of the
status quo.

Originally the Arab reformist groups
hoped their nationalist aims would be supported by the Young Turks, who had
staged a revolution in 1908-1909. Unfortunately, after seizing power, the Young
Turks became increasingly repressive and nationalistic. They abandoned many of
their liberal policies because of domestic opposition and Turkey's engagement
in foreign wars between 1911 and 1913. Thus, the Arab nationalists could not
count on the support of the Young Turks and instead were faced with opposition
by the Turkish government.

Source: Federal Research
Division of the Library of Congress and Wikipedia.

Discover this Educational CD-ROM on the History of Lebanon
recommended by LebGuide.com...

In Leebo's adventures, History of Lebanon, you will travel through the past starting from the
prehistoric times up until the Arab conquest going through the Phoenicians, Alexander the Great and other
legendary heroes and gods. At the end of each story, Leebo will ask you fun questions that will help you
memorize the story. As a reward, little hero, you will have access to 7 games prepared especially for you by Leebo.